Donald Trump Tries To Bone Discovery With Late Offer Of DNA In Carroll Defamation Case

Donald Trump yelling

(Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)

Who says Donald Trump’s lawyers aren’t masters of innovation? They’re constantly inventing new and interesting ways to piss off judges, at both the state and federal level!

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-top-300x250" ); });

Take, for instance, his lawyers in the E. Jean Carroll defamation case, who just last week promised that they were ready and willing to go to trial, not seeking any further delay, nosiree!

The State Of Today’s Corporate Law Departments Sponsored The State Of Today’s Corporate Law Departments A report from our friends at Thomson Reuters will help you benchmark legal spend, find greater efficiency, and innovate for the future.  From Thomson Reuters and Above the Law

“If you say start tomorrow, I’ll be ready,” Trump’s new lawyer Joseph Tacopina told the court last Tuesday, even as he requested a six-week delay of all deadlines. ““If you say April, I’m trying it in April. I’m not running from this obligation.”

That would be a change of strategy for a defendant who ducked process, claimed absolute immunity from civil suit, removed the case to federal court, refused to submit to discovery, and already appealed twice to the Second Circuit in an attempt to avoid facing charges that he defamed the plaintiff when he called her a liar and said he couldn’t possibly have raped her decades ago because she was not his “type.”

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-middle-300x250" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-storycontent-440x100" ); }); googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-in-story-youtube-1x1" ); });

But just two days later, Jose Pagliery from the Daily Beast reported that “the former president’s legal team has a new gambit they hope will dismantle her case and cast serious doubt on the claims that Trump raped her sometime in the mid-1990s.” After three years of adamantly refusing to submit his DNA for comparison to male genetic material on the dress Carroll claims she wore on the day of the attack, Trump was at long lost willing to get that cheek swab after all.

Pagliery’s article cited “a source familiar with his defense team’s new strategy,” noting that “Trump’s proposition has not yet been made to the opposing side.” To his infinite credit, the reporter gave most of his pixels to lawyers explaining that this abrupt about face — seeking to introduce new discovery just two months before trial and after years of motions Judge Lewis Kaplan already described as “at least in part for a dilatory purpose and is at least in part in bad faith” — may try the court’s patience.

Sponsored Legal Knowledge Management To Drive Dealmaking Sponsored Legal Knowledge Management To Drive Dealmaking Here’s how Lexis Search Advantage | Transactional unites internal and external research to create better deals faster. From Ethan Beberness What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life? Sponsored What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life? We want to know your views on law firm policies and culture. From Above The Law Stuck Drafting A Tough Brief? This Tool Can Help. Sponsored Stuck Drafting A Tough Brief? This Tool Can Help. LexisNexis Brief Analysis produces powerful, near-instant legal argumentation insights using the power of AI. From Ethan Beberness What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life? Sponsored What Do Millennials Think Of Law Firm Life? We want to know your views on law firm policies and culture. From Above The Law

But Tacopina appears to have calculated that it’s a risk he’s willing to take for … whatever reason. On Friday, he docketed a letter to the court requesting “an immediate ruling concerning a dispute which has arisen between the parties.”

The issue was ostensibly the plaintiff’s refusal to surrender some pages from the DNA analysis performed in 2020 on the dress. Tacopina purported to be deeply concerned that Carroll was “lying in wait and intending to use such evidence on cross-examination of Defendant’s witnesses or in her rebuttal.” Essentially, he argued that his client must now be allowed to take the DNA test to prevent Carroll from telling the jury that he refused to take the DNA test — which he did for over a year now.

This was, of course, a convenient way of getting us all to write stories telling the world, including potential jurors, that the lack of DNA evidence was because the plaintiff herself refused to allow it. Tacopina then went on to insist that Carroll’s refusal to reopen discovery proves that her allegations were a hoax.

googletag.cmd.push( function() { // Display ad. googletag.display( "div-id-for-bottom-300x250" ); });

“Mr. Trump’s DNA is either on the dress or it is not. Why is Plaintiff now hiding from this reality?” he wrote. “We surmise that the answer to that question is that she knows his DNA is not on the dress because the alleged sexual assault never occurred.”

Carroll’s response via her lawyer Roberta Kaplan, no relation to the judge, was furious. She accused Trump’s lawyers of leaking the story to the press as part of “a bad-faith effort to taint the potential jury pool, upend this Court’s discovery orders, and delay these proceedings.” She also suggested that the DNA analysis would necessarily delay the trial, accusing Trump’s lawyers of being disingenuous about the length of time it would take to conduct the testing and file the concomitant pleadings.

Sponsored The State Of Today’s Corporate Law Departments Sponsored The State Of Today’s Corporate Law Departments A report from our friends at Thomson Reuters will help you benchmark legal spend, find greater efficiency, and innovate for the future.  From Thomson Reuters and Above the Law How Are Millennials Changing Law Firm Culture? Sponsored How Are Millennials Changing Law Firm Culture? We want to know about your priorities. From Above The Law

“Trump may prefer to put off trial for another day, and he (and his new lawyers) may regret decisions that he made earlier in the case, but that is no basis to again delay Carroll’s day in court,” she wrote. “Nor is it a basis to upend the discovery process and undertake a complex factual and expert discovery proceeding into issues that Trump himself spent years opposing.”

Tacopina replied with yet another publicly docketed letter taking theatrical umbrage at the suggestion that he was seeking delay or — GASP! — attempting to taint the jury pool. He even went so far as to accuse Carroll of attempting to taint the jury pool herself by writing a book and promoting it. Of course, she wrote the book before the case was even filed, but let’s not get technical here.

All of this is sure to impress Judge Kaplan. And he was pretty, umm, impressed already. Gonna be a wild week!

Carroll v. Trump I [Docket via Court Listener]
Carroll v. Trump II [Docket via Court Listener]
Trump Says He’ll Hand Over His DNA for E. Jean Carroll Case [Daily Beast]

Liz Dye lives in Baltimore where she writes about law and politics.

Topics

Courts, Donald Trump, E. Jean Carroll


Introducing Jobbguru: Your Gateway to Career Success

The ultimate job platform is designed to connect job seekers with their dream career opportunities. Whether you're a recent graduate, a seasoned professional, or someone seeking a career change, Jobbguru provides you with the tools and resources to navigate the job market with ease. 

Take the next step in your career with Jobbguru:

Don't let the perfect job opportunity pass you by. Join Jobbguru today and unlock a world of career possibilities. Start your journey towards professional success and discover your dream job with Jobbguru.

Originally posted on: https://abovethelaw.com/2023/02/donald-trump-tries-to-bone-discovery-with-late-offer-of-dna-in-carroll-defamation-case/